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IAH 211-241 Courses - Spring 2010

Through written histories, sources from the period 1450-1850, literature, films, art, anthropological studies, and sociological studies this class examines how scholars from multiple disciplines have grappled with African slavery and the Atlantic slave trade. Over the course of several hundred years, about 12.5 million Africans were forced onto ships and taken across the Atlantic Ocean, many more being killed and displaced in Africa as the result of slaving. The impact of the trade on parts of Africa was large, indeed. And the inhumanity of the trade begs explanation. We will be interested in how scholars have come to terms with a trade that caused widespread human suffering, the underdevelopment of parts of Africa, and the economic development of many parts of Europe and the Americas.

This course examines the life, times, and legacy of Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948), who is regarded as the father of independent India and among the most important and charismatic historical figures of the twentieth century. Following an introduction to Gandhi's intellectual and political career, we will examine key issues of Gandhi's India, including village life, gender, caste, and partition. The course concludes with a discussion of Gandhi's global importance, especially in the Civil Rights movement.

This course focuses on Bollywood, the site of India?s Hindi-language film industry, one of the largest in the world. It considers Indian film as visual culture and as an archive of social change in India since the nation's independence in 1947. The last section of the course tracks the global impact of Hindi film as it has circulated throughout Asia, Africa, Europe and North America

Conducted in Spanish. This course explores Latin American culture and its representation in the media through the analysis of current events. Focus is on major issues facing Latin American societies and the intersection of tradition and modernity. Course materials include literary texts, selected articles and diverse media and films in Spanish. Students will identify specific research topics in their areas of interest for semester projects.

This course will not only view a variety of Hollywood films that depict Indians, but also analyze (and interpret) them in terms of larger trends and developments to make sense of events and people too often included in a romantic haze. Further study of films produced by and about American Indians will be explored in juxtaposition to the stereotypical films of Hollywood. The analysis of documentaries with Indian subject matters will be scrutinized as well.

This course examines forms of cultural production relating to the humanities in the context of the complex relations between the United States and Latin America from roughly 1898 to the present.Through lectures, readings, films, and other cultural "texts," we will learn about the different forces that have shaped the cultural development of Latin America and related historical and cultural aspects of the United States during the same period.

This course examines a broad range of topics, subjects, and though-provoking and controversial issues within the African Diaspora from Pre-colonial West Africa until to the present. This course explores the African Diaspora by placing African Americans and the field of Black Studies and American history at the center. This is a multidisciplinary and will draw attention to several key themes: (1) theorizing the African Diaspora; (2) the historical and contemporary images of African Americans in the media; (3) African American political and social protest organizations; (4) African American Women as Race Reformers, Criminals, Spiritual Leaders, Political Leaders and Spokespersons; (5) African Americans and Organized Crime; and (6) Contemporary Issues in Lives of African Americans.

This course explores the history of representation of Asian and Asian Americans in Hollywood cinema from the silent era to the contemporary. It includes careers of Asian/Asian American stars and directors such as silent movie stars Sessue Hayakawa, Anna May Wong, and Philip Ahn; kung fu stars Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li; and contemporary film directors Ang Lee, Wayne Wang, and Justin Lin. This course historicizes the emergence of these transnational Asians in larger social contexts of U.S.-Asia relation, politics of race, gender, and sexuality, and cultural globalization.

In the period between 1890s and 1920s America became urban. For better or for worse, the urbanization process transformed social, political, and economic relations in the United States. This course provides an interdisciplinary overview of the urban development and growth of the United States at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries, using New York and Chicago as case studies. Using a variety of visual, historical, polemical, literary, and sociological materials, students will be able to identify major urban problems in these cities (some of them more lasting than others), and understand the various approaches (sometimes contradictory) adopted by different groups of Americans to solve them.

This course provides an overview of the history, religion, culture, arts, and literature of Arab Americans and is intended to fill the gaps in knowledge concerning this macro ethnic group by providing an overview of the Arab-American culture, their religions, their socioeconomic diversity, the challenges and stereotypes they face, Arab-American contributions, and Arab-American literature. Emphasis will be on Michigan and Ohio populations and the five major sub-groups: Syrian/Lebanese, Palestinian/Jordanians, Chaldeans, North Africans, and Yemenis.

The course provides a general historical overview of literature, arts, religion and politics in the Arab World from the pre-Islamic era to the present, emphasizing the diversities that characterize the region. The course will cover some of the following topics:

• Maps of the Arab World: from 600 to 2010;
• Islam, revelations and monotheism;
• Qur'an, language and the artistic expression;
• Caliphates: religious and political authority;
• Minorities: ethnic minorities and Arab cultural hegemony;
• Europe's Other: from the Crusades the Ottoman empire.
• Arab Nationalism and Pan Arabism;
• Arab Cities: the pre-Islamic city; the Medieval city; the modern imperial city; the postcolonial city.
• Arab Diasporas: migrants, refugees and exiles;
• Arabs and globalization.

This course engages with contemporary discourse concerning women & Islam. The conduct of both the religion & the religious will thus be examined in their historical & cultural contexts, & accounts from scholars & popular media will be dealt with, too. Through a survey of ideas, literature, & films that derive from both within & outside of the world of Islam, this course seeks to foster an understanding of the many perspectives on women & Islam. Major questions to be dealt with in lectures, readings, & discussions include the following: the conduct of religion (esp. Islam) in the oppression of women (i.e., can Islam be blamed, or does it reflect wider socio-cultural, economic, historical, & geographic patterns of gender relationships?); the varied roles of colonialism & imperialism with respect to women in the wider Islamic world (e.g., how did colonialism effect gender relations, & what might we say of post-colonial gender relations in the Islamic world?); & themes in both Western & Islamic feminisms (i.e., what are their distinctions, their histories, & their agendas, & do they coincide or clash?).

Broad survey of the arts and humanities of the ancient Mediterranean and Mesoamerican worlds examined through the frame of literature, visual arts, religion, and philosophy presented in historical context. Includes treatment of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, Islam, and the Maya and Inca.

Athens and Sparta were at war intermittently for decades in the classical period. Our course begins with Homer´s Iliad and Aeschylus´ Oresteia for background, then proceeds to history, art, gods, comedy, tragedy, philosophy, music, sports, and politics. Reading original texts (in translation) and seeing performances, students learn about Athens and Sparta, waging war and making peace, the important differences between justice and law, and about using sources to construct arguments orally and in writing.

An examination of underlying issues/ideas/themes in the worldview of the medieval era and the paradigm shifts that occur after the New World-Old World encounters; concepts of diversity through the ages

Ireland is at once a forerunner of the so-called third world emergence in the twentieth century but also a recognizably European culture. Many Americans will recognize as well an antecedent of their own culture. We will focus on the interaction of art and culture in twentieth century Ireland: plays, poems, novels, and films.

This course will examine diverse modes of visuality in modern culture and media, both thematically and critically. We will be interested in particular visual themes like voyeurism, hallucination, witnessing, surveillance, and concealment, drawing on texts from print and film. We will also analyze what rules of representation particular visual genres like comics, photography, film, or television follow. Finally, we will critically consider more philosophical and cultural implications of particular modes of vision, such as the boundary between word and image, the relation between sexuality and seeing, or the connections of knowledge, power, and vision.

This interdisciplinary course examines major features of Modern Greek Society and Culture presented in a global perspective and focusing its interaction with Balkans, Europe and US. Located in the Mediterranean region, and continuing to keep strong ties with its antiquity, Greece is becoming part of a contemporary and global community; this unified culture is simultaneously becoming more diverse along with its society. Emphasizing significant moments of Modern Greek history will help students to analyze features of Greece?s political, social, religious, artistic and cultural expression, explore ancient values surviving in modern times along with the adaptation to a changing world. Students will be exposed to a variety of sources such as texts, articles, literature, poetry, music, works of art, films and documentaries that speak for images of Greek identity. Special emphasis goes to Greek American Diaspora and its cultural artifact.

What is the meaning of life? Whether life has any meaning at all, and what that meaning might be, is related to the question about the ultimate nature of the universe and the place of humanity in it. We will look at three broad approaches to these issues: western Monotheism, western non-theistic views, and Buddhism, a non-western, non-theistic religion. Sources will be short stories, philosophical essays, religious texts, and films.

The purpose of this course is to help students examine human beings’ relationship to nature and environmental problems from a variety of conceptual positions -- biological, philosophical, and religious. Three primary questions motivate the course: (1) Is nature critical to modern human life?; (2) How ought 21st century humans live with nature?; and (3) How has human culture—i.e., values, institutions, and religious traditions—contributed to the environmental crisis and what role should it play in environmental restoration? Course readings will draw primarily on seminal texts in the field of environmental ethics, as well as on some classical writings on nature and the human-nature relation. Narrative essays and poetry from American environmental thought will be interspersed through the readings. In addition, film representing contemporary environmental concerns will be utilized in class.

This course will look closely at our own shifting moment--when newspapers are disappearing, when books are becoming digital, when journalism occurs on Twitter-- through the lens of l'histoire de livre. We will read primary works like an oral epic (Beowulf or The Song of Roland), J. Swift's Battle of the Books, Gibson's Neuromancer, and Austen's Northanger Abbey. We will also examine secondary works like "Proust and the Squid" (Wolf), "The Great Cat Massacre" (Darnton), "Orality and Literacy" (Ong), "The Gutenberg Galaxy" (McLuhan), and "The Gutenberg Elegies" (Birkets). In other words, this course will focus on the "book" as a concept and ponder its fate in a world that is packaging its ideas in new ways.

Since 1750, many efforts developed to limit wars or end warfare entirely. Artists, writers, musicians, and intellectuals often led these anti-war efforts and based their arguments on moral issues. This course will explore the major movements to limit warfare and analyze the major causes of this opposition to assess its impact. Special emphasis will be given to wars of the 20th century and a variety of media will be used including literature, poetry, music, film, memoir, and art.

The course explores various approaches to the study and understanding of conflict & violence, nonviolence, and peace and justice. The follows the integrative approach to reflect on transdisciplinary approaches to the study of peace, including philosophy, history, literature, social science, films & documentaries.

This course explores language and dialectal variation in the United States and other societies and also how various aspects of social identity are manifested through language use and language choice. Students are introduced to methods for analyzing language structures and varieties and how people respond to these structures and varieties.

This course will look at everyday language to learn about different aspects of human nature. For example, how can grammatical constructions help us understand the way we think? What can metaphors teach us about the way we perceive reality? What does swearing reveal about emotions? What can polite requests or implicit bribes tell us about the way we interact with other people?

A social and musical history of jazz and its position in U.S. society. Emphasis is placed on the primary innovators of the music, including Armstrong, Ellington, Parker, etc., as well as the creative requirements for improvisation and performance. The role of jazz within the greater arts community (reviewers, other artists, promoters, historians, etc.) is analyzed, as well as the unique and changing position of the Black jazz artist in American society. Students will attend jazz concerts outside of regular classes and write reviews/descriptions of those concerts.

This course is an introductory survey of music from different world cultures. It is designed to serve students who have little or no background in formal music training as well as students who have an interest in expanding their musical experiences. Students will learn how to discuss and write about music processes and critically analyze musical performances.

A consideration of the ways in which traditional African music has influenced the development of a variety of styles of African-American music in the United States (particularly blues, jazz and gospel music). Includes an examination of traditional African music and culture, its styles and instruments, and current styles of African popular music. The second half of the course focuses on the historical development of African-American styles from the ring shout to hip hop.

A consideration of the roles of music in culture and of the relationship between various aspects of musical style in view of with its intended function. Musical examples are drawn from the mainstream of European-American culture as well as selected non-Western folk, popular and traditional styles.

This course will consider philosophic and literary texts that present the same ideas so that we can explore how an idea's presentation influences its impact. The course will involve often challenging classic texts. In order to understand philosophic and literary writing from the inside, students will have the opportunity to produce both.

Introduction to the philosophy, visual art, music, and literature of the Enlightenment, the influential intellectual movement that swept Europe and America in the 1700s and established many dominant values of the modern world, including the ideals of liberty, democracy, religious toleration, progress, and human rationality. Enlightenment thought paved the way for the French and American Revolutions and is at the core of many human rights movements, but it has also had its critics. We will explore the scope and limits of Enlightenment as well as its relevance in the 21st century.

What do we to predict or alter the future and why? How do we recognize those things in real-world examples and how do we evaluate the reliability of our predications and plans. Readings and films from great authors and epochs in the European tradition, including Beowulf, Macbeth, a medieval German epic, John Calvin, John Snow, fairy tales, Karl Marx, quantum mechanics, Werner Heisenberg, Franz Kafka, and several twentieth century films.

The power of women was honored and mythologized by medieval artists. Art-historical analysis of images created and paid for by women, and images of women created and paid for by men, reveals the visual strategies through which our ancestors constructed meaning, value, and gender identity. In this course, we will explore the appearance and functions of these images in pre-Modern Europe, from the Carolingian to the late Gothic periods (8th to 15th centuries), and explore the roles of image, architecture, and ritual in the lives of women and men. We will consider evidence from many disciplines, including art history, feminist theory, literary theory, religious and mythological studies, and other human sciences, to consciously shift the focus of history toward the roots of our own gender identities.

The course examines the relationship between selected work of Latino theater and art created in the USA during the twentieth century, the social context in which they were created, and in which they are received. The course will examine the contribution of Latino writers in USA, the factors that contribute to the creation of such pieces and the way such pieces were received by society. It will also examines the factors that contribute to a sense in individual and group identity in relation to political, cultural, and national social forces.

Creativity in Arts Education. This section focuses on gaining an understanding of strategies to enhance your personal creativity through arts based knowledge as well as recognize the importance of arts in K-12 education. In this course students will be introduced to the relationship between the arts and schools and the role that creativity plays in educational settings. Students will explore, through readings, discussions and analysis how the arts impact learners in meaningful ways and they will reflect upon their own educational experiences in relation to the arts and creative process.